Beginning with his first doping experiences as a member of the U.S Postal Service team in 1997, Hamilton reveals not only what he and other riders were doing and taking (EPO, steroids, testosterone, Actovegin, blood transfusions, and on and on), but also how they were taking it (in the case of EPO, intravenouslyâ€”and Hamilton has the scar to prove it). He tells us how most riders evaded detection (one trick: French laws bar testers from showing up between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., so cyclists â€œmicrodosedâ€ EPO at ten and the drug was gone by morning) and how the game was rigged in a way that made testing nearly irrelevant (â€œIf you were careful and paid attention,â€ writes Hamilton, â€œyou could dope and be 99 percent certain that you would not get caughtâ€). Supporters still clinging to the claim that Armstrong passed more than 500 drug controls will be shocked to learn how insignificant those tests really were.

He goes on

The drugs are everywhere, and as Hamilton explains, Armstrong was not just another cyclist caught in the middle of an established drug culture — he was a pioneer pushing into uncharted territory. In this sense, the book destroys another myth: that everyone was doing it, so Armstrong was, in a weird way, just competing on a level playing field. There was no level playing field. With his connections to Michele Ferrari, the best dishonest doctor in the business, Armstrong was always “two years ahead of what everybody else was doing,” Hamilton writes. Even on the Postal squad there was a pecking order. Armstrong got the superior treatments.

What ultimately makes the book so damning, however, is that it doesn’t require readers to put their full faith in Hamilton’s word. In the book’s preface, which details its genesis, Coyle not so subtly addresses Armstrong’s supporters by pointing out that, while the story is told through Hamilton, nine former Postal teammates agreed to cooperate with him on The Secret Race, verifying and corroborating Hamilton’s account. Nine teammates.

And about those 500 passed drug tests

The 2011 60 Minutes story on Armstrongâ€™s doping reported that he had once failed a drug test in 2001 at the Tour of Switzerland, a story Hamilton backs up: â€œYes, Lance Armstrong tested positive at the Tour of Switzerland.â€ He describes an encounter with Armstrong just after Stage 9 of the race. â€œYou wonâ€™t fucking believe this,â€ he allegedly told Hamilton. â€œI got popped for EPO.â€ According to the 60 Minutes investigation, the UCI stepped in after the positive test, requesting that â€œthe matter go no further,â€ and then set up a meeting between the labâ€™s director, Armstrong, and team director Johan Bruyneel. The insinuation is clear: Lance was using connections within the UCI to help his cause. Hamilton describes a climate in which this doesnâ€™t seem at all far-fetched. â€œSometime after that, I remember Lance phoning Hein Verbruggen from the team bus … and I was struck by the casual tone of the conversation. Lance was talking to the president of the UCI, the leader of the sport. But he may as well have been talking to a business partner, a friend.â€

2 thoughts on “Lance Armstrong is a fraud”

What entices people like Lance Armstrong to cheat? Isn’t it the adoration that we lavish on the winner? Isn’t it we the fans who worship, not the accomplishment, but the athlete who are as much to blame as the athlete himself?
Instant noodles, power lawnmowers and microwave ovens leave us so much time to fill that we are desperate to be entertained. What a world it would be if we invested our time in housing the homeless, feeding the hungry and the pursuit of spiritual growth instead of the quest for meaningless world records, medals and trophies.

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This is a weblog about urban issues, technology, & culture published by Jordon Cooper since 2001. You can read about me and the site here and if you are looking for one of my columns in The StarPhoenix, you can find them here.